Member, Michigan Senate 1921-1922
The west wall of the Senate Chamber is home to a portrait of Sen. Eva McCall Hamilton, Michigan’s first female legislator, who served 1921-1922. A former teacher and suffragist from Grand Rapids, she chaired the Senate Industrial Schools Committee and authored twelve bills on issues including teacher retirement, appropriations, mother’s pensions (an early form of state assistance for single mothers), and civics education.
Historic photographs of Hamilton were used to create this posthumous portrait, commissioned by the Senate in the 1990s. Several images of Hamilton survive in a rare scrapbook at the Library of Michigan compiled by Rep. Elizabeth Belen (1937-1938) in Hamilton’s honor.
Sen. Hamilton was the subject of our March Rise & Progress public program. Watch it, and catch up on other programs, on our YouTube channel.
